Doctored images in the age before Photoshop

The New York Times ran a slide show the other day featuring famous doctored photos from the past. In the age of image manipulation and Photoshop it is interesting to see that images have been manipulated since day one. Said Hany Farid, a professor of computer science at Dartmouth University and a detective of photographic fakery: “The very nature of photography was to record events. You’d think there would have been a grace period of respect for this new technology.”

The article delves into a few other famous images. The above shot of Lincoln has his head on a more regal body. And it also features a debate about Joe Rosenthal’s image of Marine’s raising the flag at Iwo Jima, one of the most famous photos in the world. That shot, unlike those in the above gallery, seems to be real.